Chapter XIV: Part 14

"Well, I must tell her at once, then," said Roma. "I am leaving here myself at five. I have only been here two days, on my way, or rather out of my way, north. I spend to-night at Stebbing with some friends who happen to be going north too, to-morrow."

"You should have come by Wareborough again," suggested Gerald. "I am sure Mrs Dalrymple would have been delighted to see you."

"Next time, perhaps," answered Roma. Then she added, with a smile, "I am quite getting to like Wareborough--or, at least, some of the people in it--though I used to think it such a dreadful place."

Suddenly something in her own words made her blush and feel ashamed of herself. "I must go to Eugenia," she said, hastily, leaving the room rather abruptly as she spoke.

"I wonder what there is about that Mr Thurston that always makes me behave in his presence like an underbred schoolgirl?" she thought to herself, as she went upstairs.

Barely five minutes--certainly not ten--had passed when the door of the room where Gerald was waiting opened, and Eugenia herself appeared. He had turned, expecting to see Roma again; a slight constraint was immediately perceptible in his manner when he saw who the new-comer was. The last time he had seen her had been on her marriage day. At first sight he hardly thought her much altered. She did not look ill, for the excitement of Roma's news, the eagerness to hear more, had brought a bright colour to her cheeks. When it faded again he saw how pale she really was.

"Oh, Gerald!" she exclaimed, with all her old winning impulsiveness, "how good of you to come! How very good of you t Of course I shall go back with you at once. And Roma tells me there is no actual cause for more anxiety? You are sure of that, are you not, Gerald?"

He repeated to her word for word what the doctor had said to him that morning. She felt he was speaking the truth, and seemed satisfied.

"I expect Beauchamp in directly," she said, looking at her watch. "He will probably want to take me home himself, but I shall try to persuade him not. He is going out to dinner to-night. It will be quite unnecessary for him to come. I shall tell him he may come to fetch me if he likes."

She spoke confidently, but with a certain nervous hurry of manner new to her, and that did not escape Gerald's observation. Just then Roma joined them. A sudden thought struck Eugenia.

"You have had nothing to eat, Gerald," she exclaimed. "Roma, dear, would you ring and order some luncheon in the dining-room? I think I must run upstairs again and hasten Rachel. She is not accustomed to sudden moves."

Captain Chancellor came home from his ride about the time he was expected. He was a very punctual man. He came in at a side door, without ringing. The first sign of life that met him as he crossed the hall, was the sight, through the half-open dining-room door, of an entertainment of some kind going on within. An impromptu repast at which the only guest was a stranger, a man, that was all Beauchamp could see, for the unknown was sitting with his back to him, but as he looked, a still more astonishing sight met his eyes, Roma, no less a person than Roma, was keeping the stranger company!

Who on earth could it be? Beauchamp hated unexpected visitors, and irregular meals and "upsets" of every kind; above all he hated that anything should take place in his own house without his knowing all the ins and outs of it. Vaguely annoyed, he was turning to make inquiry, when an eager voice arrested him. It was the voice of Rachel, a very flushed and excited Rachel. Captain Chancellor objected to the lower orders displaying their feelings in his presence, and at the best of times there was a latent antagonism between Eugenia's husband and her maid.

"Oh, sir," exclaimed the agitated damsel. "Oh, sir, you have come in. I am so glad." ("What business is it of yours?" thought her master.) "My mistress is so anxious to see you at once, sir, please."

"What is the matter? Where is your mistress?" he asked impatiently.

"Upstairs, sir, in her own room, packing," she replied, rashly.

"Packing? What in all the world do you mean? Packing, where to go to? Are you all going out of your senses?" he demanded, with increasing irritation.

But Rachel, seeing which way the wind blew, had prudently fled. There was nothing for it but to go up to Eugenia's room, and find out for himself the reason of all this disturbance.

Ten minutes later, the bell of Mrs Chancellor's dressing-room rang sharply, and a message came down to Miss Eyrecourt, requesting her to go upstairs at once.

When Roma entered the room, there stood the husband and wife, the former looking out of the window, tapping his boots impatiently with the riding whip still in his hand; the latter by the side of a half-filled trunk, her face white and miserable, but with a gleam in her eyes which Roma had never seen there before.

"Roma," she cried, as Miss Eyrecourt came in, with a passionate, appealing despair in her voice, "Roma, he won't let me go! And my father longing so for me. Roma, speak to him."

"Roma knows better," said Beauchamp, with a hard little laugh. "Let you go? I should think not. You must be completely insane to think of such a thing. You who have been making yourself out too much of an invalid to go anywhere--why, you refused Lady Vaughan for this very evening!--to think of setting off on a three or four hours' journey with a perfect stranger--a stranger to _me_ at least, whom your father sends off in this helter-skelter fashion to fetch you, because he is not very well and nervous and fanciful. I never heard such a thing in my life! I can't understand your complete indifference to appearances in the first place."

Eugenia said not a word. Roma, knowing of old the mood which Beauchamp was in, controlled her indignation, though it was not very easy to do so.

"Perhaps you will come downstairs, and hear the whole particulars from Mr Thurston himself," she said to Captain Chancellor, coldly. He took the hint, and followed her out of the room. Outside, on the landing, she turned upon him. "Do not think I am going to interfere," she said quickly. "I know it would be useless. I don't take upon myself to say that she should go, that she is well enough--though, to my thinking, the distress and disappointment will be worse for her than the journey--but in the thing itself you may be right. But this I do say, that the _way_ you have done it, your manner to her, is simply," she hesitated a moment, "brutal," she added, with contemptuous distinctness. "Bringing in the vulgar question of `appearances' at such a time!"

This was her parting shot. She turned and left him, and Beauchamp, without having replied to her by word or glance, stalked away downstairs to Mr Thurston.

He was very civil to Gerald, so civil as to make the new-comer feel that he was looked upon as a total stranger; so full of acknowledgments of the great trouble Mr Thurston had given himself, as to suggest that the qualification "unnecessary" was in his thoughts all the time. But Gerald did not care enough for the man to be annoyed or in any way affected by his opinion; he only cared for the errand he had come upon, and his disappointment was great when he found it was to be a fruitless one. He did not attempt to hide it.

"I am exceedingly sorry that Mrs Chancellor cannot return with me," he said; "it is very unfortunate."

"But, from what you tell me, there is no cause for pressing anxiety," said Captain Chancellor. "Mr Laurence is not in a critical state?"

"There is no immediate danger, so at least the doctor assured me," Gerald admitted. "But my own opinion is less favourable. I do not like this sudden feverish eagerness to see his daughter: it is quite unlike Mr Laurence. I confess, it made me very uneasy, and I dread the effects of the disappointment."

Beauchamp smiled. There was a slight superiority in his smile. At another time it might have irritated Gerald as it did Roma, who had re-entered the room.

"I can't say that I see any grounds for uneasiness in what you mention," Beauchamp said. "Every one knows how fanciful sick people are. And as for the disappointment, there need be none, I hope. I shall see my wife's medical man to-morrow, and, if he approves, I shall bring her over to Wareborough myself in a few days. A very different thing from acting without his approval."

And with this, Gerald had to be content. There was reason in what Captain Chancellor said, but his evident consciousness of being the only reasonable one of the party made it all the more irritating to have to abide by his decision.

"Mr Thurston," said Roma, when, for a moment, they were alone, just as he was leaving, "Eugenia asked me to beg you to forgive her not coming down again, and she told me too, to thank you `very, very much.' And will you add to your kindness by writing to her to-morrow, and saying exactly how Mr Laurence is, and how he bore the disappointment."

"Certainly I will," said Gerald. "I will write to-night, if the post is not gone. Our post is late."

"And," added Roma, hesitatingly, "you will prevent their thinking it her fault. I mean, you will prevent their thinking her indifferent or careless, without, of course, blaming any one else, if you can help it." She grew a little confused. "It is not a case in which any one can interfere, but oh, I am so sorry for her!" she broke out.

Mr Thurston's eyes looked the sympathy he felt, but he did not say much.

"I think you may trust me," he said at last. "I will try to explain it as she--and you--would like. And after all," he added, by way of consolation, as he shook hands, "perhaps we are rather fanciful and exaggerated. I could not help thinking so when Captain Chancellor was speaking."

It was nearly time for Roma herself to go. She went up again to Eugenia. She found her standing by the window, which overlooked the drive, watching Gerald's fly as it disappeared.

"Did he promise to write?" she asked as Roma came in.

"Yes, to-morrow, certainly--possibly to-night."

"Did you say anything more to him, Roma? Did you ask him to tell them how I _longed_ to go--how it was not my fault?"

"Yes--at least, I told him how earnestly you wished to go, but that it could not be helped. It would not have done to have let them think there had been any discussion about it, would it? And perhaps Beauchamp is wisest. I blame myself for having seemed to take your going for granted, at first."

"You need not. You have been very good to me," said Eugenia. And then the two kissed each other, a rare demonstration of affection for Roma.

She offered to defer her journey to Deepthorne, to stay at Halswood as long as Eugenia liked. Beauchamp's wife thanked her, but said, "No, any `to-do' would run the risk of annoying him," and Roma, knowing this to be true, and not a little uncertain besides what place she at present held in the good graces of the master of the house, did not persist.

So she drove away to Stebbing, and Captain Chancellor in due time departed to his dinner-party at Sir Bernard Vaughan's, and Eugenia was left alone.

Afterwards, Roma wished that she had stayed.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FIVE.

THE LAST STRAW.

Oh Lord, what is thys worldys blysse,
That changeth as the mone!
My somer's day in lusty May
Is derked before the none.

_The Not-Browne Mayd_.

There was no letter the next morning. "Gerald must have been too late," thought Eugenia, trying to think she did not feel anxious. But the morning after that there was none either--none, at least, that she caught sight of at first. There was one with the Wareborough postmark, but it had a black seal and was addressed to her husband, and he prevented her seeing it till he knew its contents. Then he had to tell her. It was from Frank. Eugenia never knew or remembered distinctly anything more of that day, nor of several others that succeeded it. And Captain Chancellor never cared to repeat to any one the wild words of reproach which, in the first moment of agony, had escaped her. But, satisfied though he was that he had acted for the best, there were moments during those days when Beauchamp was thankful to recall the assurance which Sydney's husband had had the generous thoughtfulness to give in this letter. "Even if Eugenia had returned with my brother it would have been too late;" an assurance which Eugenia's stunned senses had failed to convey to her brain.

This was the history of that day at Wareborough--the day, that is to say, of Gerald's unsuccessful errand.

As soon as he was satisfied that Eugenia had been sent for, Mr Laurence became calmer. He slept at intervals during the day, and when awake seemed so much better that Sydney almost regretted the precipitancy with which she had acted on what was, perhaps, after all, only an invalid's passing fancy. But by evening she came to think differently. The nervous restlessness returned in an aggravated form. Every few minutes he asked her what o'clock it was, and she, understanding the real motive of the question, replied each time with a little addition of volunteered information.

"Seven o'clock, dear papa; they _may_ be here by nine, you know;" or, "a quarter to eight; they will be about half-way if they started by the later train."

Between eight and nine, to Sydney's great relief, her father fell asleep again. She dared not leave him, but sat beside him, watching his restless slumber; wearied herself, she had all but fallen asleep; too, when she was startled by his suddenly addressing her.

"Sydney," he said, "tell me--Eugenia?" His voice was clear, and stronger than it had been of late, yet he seemed to find difficulty in expressing himself. A strange fear seized Sydney.

"Not yet, dear father," she said, consolingly. "She has not come yet. But very soon she must be here."

He looked at her earnestly, as if striving to take in the sense of her words. "No," he said, at last, "no, it will be too late." Then a smile broke over his face. "Good-bye, dear Sydney, dear child. Tell Eugenia not to grieve. It is not for long."

Sydney had seen death, but never a death-bed. Death, when all the life-like surroundings are removed, when the last tender offices have been performed, and the soulless form lies before us in solemn calm; in this guise death is easier to believe in--to realise. But _dying_, the actual embrace of the grim phantom--a phantom only, thank God--she had never seen, and it came upon her with an awful shock. For some minutes--how many she never knew--she stood there beside the bed, in agonised bewilderment, almost amounting to unconsciousness. The first thing that brought her to herself was the sound of wheels rapidly driving along the street, suddenly stopping at their door.

"Eugenia!" cried Sydney, "oh, poor Eugenia! She has come, and it is too late." Then a mocking hope sprang up in her heart. "Perhaps he has only fainted," it whispered. She knew it was not so, yet somehow the idea gave her momentary strength. She rang the bell violently. In another moment her husband and the servants were beside her. But in an instant they saw how it was--the good, kind father, the gentle-spirited scholar, the earnest philanthropist had passed through the awful doorway--had entered into "the better country." And Eugenia had not come!

Sydney did not see her brother-in-law that night, but the next day he told her all--not quite all, but enough to prevent her blaming Eugenia-- to fill her with unspeakable pity for her sister. To Frank, Gerald was somewhat less communicative.

"Fine lady airs and nonsense," exclaimed the curate. "Not well enough, indeed! Think how Sydney has been travelling about with her father and wearing herself out, poor child. Still I am very sorry for Eugenia. It will be an awful blow to her."

And the letter he wrote to Beauchamp, deputing him, as was natural, to "break the sad tidings" to his wife, was kind and considerate in the extreme.

Return of post brought no answer, considerably to their surprise, for Frank's letter had contained particulars of the arrangements they proposed, among which Captain Chancellor's presence at the funeral had of course been mentioned. Sydney felt anxious and uneasy; her husband tried to reassure her by reminding her that her nerves had been shaken, and she was inclined to be fanciful in consequence.

"It must be some accidental delay," he said. "Letters seldom go wrong, but when they do, it is sure to happen awkwardly. Besides, I think it just possible Chancellor may be bringing Eugenia over. She will probably wish it."

As he spoke there came a loud ringing at the bell. Sydney started. In the sad days of death's actual presence in a house such sounds are rare. There were grounds for her apprehension. In another moment a telegram was in Frank's hands.

"From Captain Chancellor to Rev F. Thurston.

"Is it possible for Sydney to come at once? E---is very ill."

The husband and wife looked at each other.

"My poor Sydney," said Frank, "it is very hard upon you."

Within an hour, Sydney was on her way to Halswood. It was a strange, melancholy journey. Arrived at Chilworth, she found the Halswood carriage in waiting, on the chance of her early arrival, and drove off at once. How pretty and fresh, how mockingly bright, the country looked, in its as yet unsullied spring dress! How beautiful the park was, when the carriage turned in at the lodge, and there stretched out before her view, on each side, the broad, undulating sweep of grassy land, fringed round with noble trees! Sydney was town-bred; she loved the country with the yearning, enthusiastic, half-reverent love of one who seldom breathes the fresh, pure air, to whom the country sights and sounds are fascinatingly unfamiliar. In a moment's forgetfulness she glanced at the baby by her side, asleep in the nurse's arms: "How fortunate Eugenia is," she thought, "to have her home here--to be able to look forward to bringing up her children in this lovely place." Then she remembered all, leant back in her seat, and was conscious of no other feeling save the gnawing anxiety that had accompanied her all the way.

When she reached the house, she learnt, somewhat to her surprise, that her brother-in-law was not in. He had only gone out for a stroll in the park, by the doctor's advice, having been up for two nights and being much fatigued--of course, not thinking it would be possible for Mrs Thurston to arrive so early--was what Blinkhorn informed her, adding, in answer to her eager inquiry, as he condescendingly showed her into the morning-room, that his mistress was "Better--decidedly better. Good hopes were now entertained of her recovery."

Then Sydney had an interview with Mrs Grier, in her element of lugubrious excitement. In somewhat less sanguine terms, she confirmed the favourable report. "But the baby," she went on to say, "was in a very sad way, poor lamb!--only just alive, and no more."

"The baby!" repeated Sydney, in amazement. "I had no idea--I had no thought of a baby for a long time to come."

"I or any one else, ma'am. It is very hard upon it, poor innocent! to have been hurried into this sad world, this valley of tears, so long before it should have been. But it cannot live, ma'am--they say it is quite impossible; and I am sure there are many of us--myself for one-- that will feel it is to be envied."

"Has my sister seen it? A boy, is it?" asked Sydney.

"No, ma'am--a girl, fortunately," replied Mrs Grier, with a curious mingling of conventional sentiment with her unworldly aspirations. "My mistress has seen it, for a moment,--this morning early, when for the first time she seemed quite conscious. It was then she asked for you, and my master sent at once. Poor dear lady! how pleased we were, to be sure."

Real tears shone in the housekeeper's eyes, and Sydney began to like her better.

"I wonder how soon I may see my sister?" she was just saying, when a step in the hall caught her ear. It was Beauchamp. The door opened and he came in--came in, looking well and fresh and handsome--offensively well, thought Sydney; heartlessly cool and comfortable.

"This _is_ kind, truly kind," he exclaimed, really meaning what he said, but unable to throw off the "amiable" manner and sweet tone habitual to him when addressing any woman, especially a young one. "I had no idea you could have come so quickly. You have heard, I hope, how much better Eugenia is. All will now, I trust, go on well. She must have had a narrow escape, though," and his voice grew graver.

"Yes," said Sydney; "I am inexpressibly thankful. But," she added, "the poor little baby?"

"Ah, yes," replied Beauchamp, indifferently, "poor little thing! It's a good thing it's a girl, is it not? You would like to see Eugenia soon, would you not? The doctor said there would be no objection; she wishes it so much. I can't tell you," he added, as he led the way upstairs, "I can't tell you how thankful I have felt that I prevented her going to Wareborough that day. The shock of finding it too late on getting there would have been even worse, and after a fatiguing journey too. Yes, I am very thankful I put a stop to that." Sydney said nothing. She did not wish to yield to prejudice or dislike, but half a dozen times in the course of this five minutes' conversation, her brother-in-law had grated on her feelings. It was very inconsiderate of him to speak so of the journey to Wareborough, which he must know had been her dear dead father's proposal. She almost wished Frank had not told him Eugenia would have been "too late." She had expected to find Beauchamp full of sympathy, and possibly of self-reproach; here he was, on the contrary, priding himself on what he had done! At least he might have had the grace to refrain from any allusion to so painful a subject. But she said nothing. And soon, very soon, she forgot all about it for the time, in the sorrowful delight of seeing Eugenia again, of listening to her murmured words of intense, unaltered affection, of gratitude and piteous grief.

"It was not the shock that did me harm," she whispered to Sydney, later in the day; "it was _remorse_. Oh, to think of what he must have thought of me! My kind, good father!"

Then Sydney, who had hitherto dreaded the subject, saw that the time had come for delivering her father's message. She did so, word for word as it had been given to her.

"And so you see, dear Eugenia," she added, in conclusion, "you need have no remorseful feeling. _He_ never thought you indifferent; and had you come, it would have been too late. Frank said so in his letter."

"Thank God!" whispered Eugenia; "and thank you, Sydney. I think now a faint remembrance recurs to me of Beauchamp saying my going would have been no use. But I took it as merely a vague consolation of his own. Had I understood it properly, I might have controlled myself better, and then perhaps I would not have been ill. I don't mind for myself, but the little baby. Oh, Sydney, my poor little baby! They say she cannot live!"

She turned her great sorrowful eyes to her sister, as if praying for a more hopeful verdict; but Sydney dared not give it. She had seen the poor little piteous atom of humanity. The only wonder to her was that it lived at all.

"And it would have been such a pretty baby!" she murmured. Then another thought struck her. "Has it been baptised?" she asked.

"Not yet. We sent to the Rectory, but Mr Dawes is away from home. Then I sent to Stebbing, and Mr Mervyn is coming--he will soon be here. That reminds me--let it be called `Sydney'--my mother's name and yours."

"Will Captain Chancellor like it?" suggested Sydney, not without hesitation.

"He need not be asked," answered Eugenia, quickly. "He cares nothing about it--it is not a _boy_!" with bitter emphasis. "No, it is all my own--living it is mine--dying, doubly mine. You will do as I ask, Sydney dear?" she added, the almost fierceness of her tone melting again into gentleness.

The little creature's name never became a source of discussion. The feeble life flickered out that very night, leaving, short as had been its span, one sore, desolate heart behind it.

Yet, physically, Eugenia made satisfactory progress towards recovery. Sydney began to think of returning home, where her presence was much needed. She did not feel that after the first she was of much comfort to her sister; for as she grew stronger, a cloud of reserve seemed to envelope Eugenia--she to whom it used to be impossible to conceal the most passing fancy. To Sydney she was most loving and affectionate, never wearied of talking over old days, full of interest in the Thurstons' home-life and prospects. But of her own life and feelings she said hardly a word. It might be right and wise to say nothing, where there was nothing satisfactory to say, thought Sydney; but all the same, it made her very unhappy. Knowing of old Eugenia's inclination to extremes, she doubted if her grounds for disappointment and dissatisfaction were altogether real and unexaggerated. But she could not urge an unwilling confidence--especially on a subject of which she felt she knew too little to be a wise adviser. For her brother-in-law was almost a complete stranger to her. He was very civil and attentive to her the few times they saw each other during this week, and more than once repeated his thanks for her prompt, response to his summons; but when she said she must fix the day of her return home, he did not press her to stay.

"You must come again before long," he said, "and by that time Eugenia will be all right again. I expect my sister here in a week or two, which will cheer us up a little. It will never do for Eugenia to yield to depression. The doctors assure me she will be all right if she will keep up her spirits, and Mrs Eyrecourt is just the person to discourage that sort of thing--low spirits and hypochondria."

Sydney sighed. She knew very little of Mrs Eyrecourt, but she felt an instinctive doubt of her sister's "grief being med'cinable" by such doctoring.

The day before she left, a little incident occurred which broke down temporarily one side of the barrier of reserve with which Eugenia had surrounded herself. Sydney was sitting by her sister's bedside; the invalid lying so quietly, that the watcher thought she must be asleep. Suddenly an unexpected sound broke the stillness--an infant's cry, once or twice repeated, then the sort of sobbing "refrain" with which a very sleepy little baby soothes itself to peace again.

Much annoyed, Sydney rose quickly but softly from her seat, and was hastening across the room, when Eugenia's voice recalled her.

"What was that, Sydney?" she inquired. "I was not asleep."

"I am so sorry, dear," said Sydney, looking very guilty, the colour mounting to her forehead, "I am afraid it is my little boy. You know I was obliged to bring him; but I hoped this would not have happened. Mrs Grier gave us rooms at the other end of the house on purpose; but I suppose nurse, thinking him safely asleep, ventured along the passage."

For a minute Eugenia did not speak. Then she said, gently, "Never mind, Sydney. Perhaps it is best. Kiss me, Sydney." And when her sister's face was closely pressed to her own, she whispered, "Even to you, dear, I can hardly tell _how_ terrible is my feeling of loss--loss of what I never had, you might almost say. But oh, if you knew how I looked forward to what that little life would be to me! Sydney, if you are ever inclined to blame me, pity me too. I need it sorely."

The sisters seemed almost to have changed places. Sydney could hardly answer for the tears that choked her. Eugenia was perfectly calm.

"Poor Eugenia, dear Eugenia!" said Sydney at last; "I do know a little at least of what you must be feeling. There have even been times in the last few days when I have not wanted to see my baby--when I have felt almost angry with him for looking _so_ strong and healthy. Oh, poor Eugenia!" Eugenia drew her sister's face down and kissed her again.

"Do you remember, Sydney," she said, suddenly, "a day, long ago, when we were putting camelias in our hair? Mine fell off the stalk, and you said you would not wear yours either, because I had none."

"Yes," said Sydney, "I remember." Then they were both silent.

"I should like to see your boy," said Eugenia, in a little--"not to-day, perhaps, but before you go. Bring him to me the last thing, that I may kiss him."

Sydney did so, "the last thing" before leaving the next morning. And thus the sisters parted again.

Three more weeks found Eugenia, comparatively speaking, almost well again, and beginning to resume her usual habits. It was the end of May by now; surely the loveliest season of the year, when the colours are brilliant yet tender with the dewy freshness wanting to them later in the year; when there is sunshine without glare, life in abundance with no attendant shadow of already encroaching decay. A season when happy people feel doubly so from nature's apparent sympathy with their rejoicing, but a season of increased suffering to the sorrowful. Oh, but the sunshine can mock cruelly sometimes! And oh, the agony in the carols of the soulless little birds! And the flowers, even! How heartless the daffodils are, and the primroses, and worst of all, perhaps, the violets! How can you show your heads again, you terrible little blossoms, and in the self-same spots too, where last year my darling's voice cried out in rapture that she had found you, hidden in the very lane where, day by day, in childish faith, she unweariedly sought you? Does she gather spring flowers now? Are there primroses and violets in the better land? There is "no need of the sun, neither of the moon" in that country, we are told; "there is no night there," "neither death, nor sorrow, nor crying." Should not this satisfy us? But it does not. We long, ah! how we long sometimes to know a little, however little more, to see if but for an instant the faces of the children playing in the golden street, by the banks of the crystal river.

Eugenia's little baby's death had been a bitter disappointment, but in its momentary life there had been no time for the gathering of hereafter bitter associations. Yet the bright spring days added to her sadness and exaggerated her tendency to dwell upon her losses. They had been many and severe, she said to herself: the father whose affection had been tried and true; the infant in whose existence she had bound up many hopes for the future--and besides these, what more had she not lost? "Trust, hope, heart, and energy," she sadly answered.

One day, nearly a month after Sydney's visit, Beauchamp told her with evident satisfaction, that he had heard from his sister; "she hopes to be here to-morrow," he added.

"To-morrow," repeated Eugenia, aghast. She had heard something of an impending visit from Mrs Eyrecourt, but she had heard it vaguely. Absorbed in her own thoughts, it had never occurred to her that it was likely to take place so soon, or that the actual date would be fixed without her being further consulted.

"Yes, certainly, to-morrow. Why not?" said Beauchamp, coolly. "And I am exceedingly glad she is coming. It is quite time you tried to rouse yourself a little, my dear Eugenia, and some fresh society will do you good."

"Society, Beauchamp?" answered Eugenia, reproachfully, "You cannot expect me to go into society _yet_!"

"I wasn't speaking of going out, or anything of that kind. I dare say you are hardly up to that; but Dr Benyon says you would be ever so much better if you had some variety. When Gertrude comes, I want to arrange for going away somewhere."

"I did not mean with regard to my health," said Eugenia. "I am well enough. I meant, considering other things; how recently--" she broke off, abruptly. "I would rather have been left alone a little longer; but, of course, a visit from your sister is different from any strangers coming."

Captain Chancellor looked slightly uneasy; an intuitive feeling had warned Eugenia that something more was to come. "Gertrude is coming alone," he said; "but she asks me if we can have the Chancellor girls here a fortnight hence. They are going to stay with her at Winsley, and she would like them to be here part of the time. And of course, there is no possible objection to it? They know we are not going out just now. One or two small dinner-parties and a little croquet, or that sort of thing, will be all they will expect."

Eugenia made no reply. Beauchamp began to get vexed. "You surely are not going to make a new trouble out of such a simple thing as this?" he exclaimed.

"I don't want to make any trouble," she answered, drearily. "I must do what you tell me; but I do think it cruel of you to put this upon me. I don't expect you to sympathise in my greatest loss, but I _cannot_ understand your not caring about our poor little baby."

Captain Chancellor gave vent to a muttered exclamation of impatience.

"You are infatuated, Eugenia!" he exclaimed. "Do you never look at home as the cause of half the things you complain of? It is not true that I did not care about the poor little thing. I cared as much as was natural considering the circumstances, and that it was not a boy. But I detest exaggerated sentiment. And really, you have no right to reproach me. You must know you have no one to thank for this particular trouble but yourself; your own want of self-control and wild behaviour because I had prevented your going off to Wareborough in that insane way, were the cause of it all. I did not intend ever to have alluded to it; but you provoke me, I do believe, intentionally. I cannot express the least wish of late but you set yourself against it. It never seems to occur to you that I have my share of disagreeables to put up with. Do you think the sort of life I have had the last few months was what I looked forward to, or that any man would envy me a wife everlastingly in low spirits like you?"

He left the room as he spoke, having, as usual, when he lost his temper, said more than he meant or really felt, regretting already that he had said so much, and at the same time mortified by the consciousness of his rudeness and unkindness. Eugenia remained where he had left her, some degrees more miserable than she had been before this conversation, though such painful scenes were not, unfortunately, so rare as to give any fresh direction to the current of her unhappiness. "Yes," she thought to herself, "it is all true--it has been a wretched mistake for him too. It is all true, but ah! how terrible for him to be the one to say it."

The next day brought Mrs Eyrecourt--Mrs Eyrecourt, in brilliant spirits and beautiful attire. For the correct number of months of mourning for her cousins having expired some time ago, she had deserted the trailing crape in which her sister-in-law had last seen her, for less lugubrious plumage. And on Eugenia's present mood, unfortunately, the bright though well assorted colours struck as discordantly as last year's sable on the feelings of the bride. But there was an unexpected pleasure in store for Beauchamp's wife. Out of the fly containing the luggage and the maids a small figure appeared. It was Floss--Floss, smaller, queerer, greener-eyed, and more defiant than ever; but internally, nevertheless, in a state of intense excitement and delight at the thought of seeing Aunty 'Genia again, hearing more dolls' stories, possibly--who could say?--seeing those venerable ladies themselves.

"Floss wouldn't come in the carriage with her uncle and me," said Gertrude, turning to Eugenia. "She is more of a little savage than ever, I fear."

"Poor Floss!" thought her aunt, as she kissed her.

Gertrude was in a very amiable mood. She congratulated Eugenia on looking so well--"Ever so much better than she had expected to see her," while wondering in her secret heart at the sad change in her sister-in-law's looks. "It must be partly her clothes," she decided, and marvelled more that her brother allowed her to wear such "atrociously made mourning." She sighed as she reflected what a different wife she would have liked to see at the head of her brother's table, and sighed again as she remembered her own short-sightedness in another direction. But her sighs were upstairs in her own room. Downstairs, she was amiability and liveliness itself. She talked, and laughed, and asked questions about the neighbours and neighbourhood, to which nearly all the answers came from Beauchamp--for in most instances Eugenia's information was at fault, her interest palpably languid. Yet when Gertrude turned from her with a patronising "Oh, no, of course, you have not met them--it was when you were ill;" or "Ah, yes, I remember you were not there," Eugenia felt unreasonably indignant. Altogether, this first evening left her with a mortifying sensation of being an outsider in her own home; she felt again the same sensation of loneliness and isolation, of being in no wise essential to her husband's well-being, which had so depressed her the first evening at Winsley. And more bitterly than ever her thoughts went back over and over again to the irreparable past.

"Aunty," inquired Floss, a day or two after this, when she was alone with Eugenia, "are you as pwetty as you used to be?"

The stare of the blue-green eyes was rather disconcerting.

"I don't know, Moss," said Eugenia. "I daresay not, but it doesn't matter. What makes you ask?"

"What does `failed off' mean?" continued Floss, pursuing her own train of thought.

"I won't answer silly questions, Floss," replied her aunt, her face flushing, nevertheless.

"'Tisn't silly," said Floss, indignantly. "Big people said it. Mamma said you had failed off _tewibly_, and Uncle Beachey looked cross and said it was your own fault. I don't think Uncle Beachey is nice at all. He spoke so cwoss. I thought falling off meant tumbling and hurting yourself, but it doesn't. It's something about being pwetty and ugly. And mamma said she wished she hadn't interfered once, and then somebody else who wouldn't have failed off would have been here. Does it mean about widing? Everybody says Aunty Woma looks pwetty widing, and I _know_ mamma meant her."

So far, in a sort of stupor of bewildered amazement, Eugenia had listened in silence to the child's curiously jumbled revelation. Suddenly she recollected herself.

"Floss," she said, sternly, "you must not repeat what you were not meant to hear, and I will not listen to you."

"It wasn't not meant for me not to hear. I was just playing with my new doll. I never listened behind the curtains. I never did," said Floss, "not since the day I cut the worm up, and Uncle Beachey scolded me. The day Aunty Woma said she'd go away, and Uncle Beachey was angwy. And I never told that mamma scolded Aunty Woma till she cwied. Aunty Woma didn't go away, but Uncle Beachey did, and when he comed back he bwought you, Aunty 'Genia, and I wish you wouldn't look so gwave. Please don't be angwy with me." There was an "et tu, Brute," inflection in the child's tone which, through all her tumultuous feelings, touched Eugenia. She stooped to kiss Floss, promising her not to be angry if she would never again talk about what she heard big people say. Then she sent her away to her dolls, and sat by herself trying to think over what she had heard, calmly; trying to persuade herself the inference to be drawn from Floss's garbled communication was not what her first instinct had told her it was; trying to believe it _could_ not be true that her husband had never really cared for her--that he had married her merely in a fit of mortified vanity, "out of pique."

Beauchamp was away that day. He had left home on a two days' visit in the neighbourhood, in which, greatly to her disgust, Mrs Eyrecourt had not been invited to accompany him. Had he been at home, doubtless Eugenia, in her first impetuous excitement, would have rushed to him for confirmation or refutation of what her morbid imagination had already worked up into a plausible history of deception and concealment on his part--of cruel advantage taken of her inexperience and confiding trust-- an explanation, she told herself, of his having so quickly grown weary of her, to which it now seemed to her innumerable, little-considered trifles pointed as the true one.

"Not that I blame him for loving Roma," she thought. "Oh no--not that. But he knew I was giving him my all, and he took it, sought it, knowing he had nothing to give me in return. Ah, it was cruel!"

She pressed her hands to her throbbing temples and burning eyes. It was too late in the day for any relief by tears; she felt as if she could never cry again. For a long time she sat there motionless. Then a sudden thought struck her. "I will hear the whole truth," she said, with a sudden fierce determination. "I will make his sister tell it all. There is nothing dishonourable in forcing her to tell me what he has wilfully concealed, if, as the child says, they talk together of the past, and wish now--now that I am his wife, the mother of his child," (this thought, alas! bringing no softening influence with it) "that it could be undone. Yes, I will make her tell it all, and she shall see what she has done--ruined two lives, if not three."

But through her tremendous excitement she remembered one trifling consideration. She would not betray poor baby Floss. Mrs Eyrecourt should never know how she had learnt the truth.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER SIX.

FRIENDS IN NEED.

Did I speak once angrily...
...You woman I loved so well,
Who married the other?

_R. Browning_.

The days were almost at their longest, but it was late enough to be nearly dark one evening, when a fly rattled along the street in Wareborough where the Thurstons lived, and drew up at the curate's door. Frank was out: he had been sent for by a dying parishioner, and had warned his wife he might be detained till late--she had better not sit up for him. Sydney had just made up her mind to act upon this injunction, and was gathering her feminine odds-and-ends about her, previous to going to bed, when the unexpected sound of an arrival startled her in the midst of her housewifely "redding up."

She was standing in the middle of her pretty little drawing-room, her work-basket in one hand, the book she had been reading in the other, the lamplight falling softly on her fair, quiet face and deep mourning dress--a peaceful, home-like picture, it seemed to the stranger, who suddenly came in upon the scene. A tall, black figure, with veiled face and shrouding drapery, stood in the doorway. Sydney was not hysterical, so she did not scream, but for a moment or two her heart beat fast, and her breathing seemed short and irregular. Who could it be?

"Sydney," said the veiled woman, "don't be startled, dear. It is only I."

"Eugenia!" exclaimed the sister, scarcely less startled than before. "Can it be you, Eugenia? Oh, what is wrong? What is the matter?"

Before answering, the new-comer turned to the door, said a word to the servant waiting just outside--a word of directions as to paying the driver, for which purpose she handed her purse to Sydney's mystified handmaiden--then, re-entering the room, she carefully closed the door.

"Can you take me in for a night, Sydney?" she asked. "You see, I have made sure of your doing so. I had nowhere else to go to." She sat down, as she spoke, on the nearest chair: her attitude told of extreme dejection, her voice sounded faint and weary.

"Take you in, dearest? Of course we can, and with the greatest pleasure," said Sydney, warmly. "Only--only--I fear--is there something wrong?"

"Yes," replied Eugenia. "At least, I suppose you will call it something wrong. It is just that I have left him--left my husband--for ever."

"Oh, Eugenia, oh, dearest sister, do not say so. It is too dreadful to be true. It cannot be so bad as that," exclaimed Sydney, in horrified amazement. "Surely, dear, you don't mean what you say--you cannot!"

"I do, though," said Eugenia. "I left Halswood secretly this afternoon, and I never shall return there. It is done now; there is no turning back."

"And why?" asked Sydney, striving to speak calmly, half inclined to think her sister's brain was affected, yet, on the other hand, shrinking from the thought of what miserable story she might not be going to hear of terrible delinquency on Captain Chancellor's part which had driven his outraged wife to this fatally decisive step. "I don't like to ask you, Eugenia," she went on, "but I suppose I must."

"I will tell you all. I have been longing to do so," returned Eugenia. "But, if you don't mind, I should like to go upstairs and go to bed. I am _so_ tired. Then I will tell you everything. May I have a cup of tea or a glass of wine? I have eaten nothing since the morning. I am so sorry to trouble you, dear," as Sydney hastened away in search of the sorely-needed refreshment. "Frank is out, I suppose?"

Half an hour later, somewhat refreshed and revived by Sydney's care, Eugenia told her story--told Sydney "all," from the first faint misgiving as to the prospects of her married life--the first shadowy suspicion of her estimate of Beauchamp's character having been a mistaken and illusory one; down through the long, painful struggle to blind herself to the truth, through the sad history of disunion and disagreement, of ever-increasing alienation, to the discovery of to-day--the discovery that, as she expressed it, "the one thing I clung to through all--the belief in his love for me, in his having loved me at least, was but a dream too--a part of the whole illusion--of the whole terrible mistake. For he never really cared for me, Sydney. When he left Wareborough that Christmas he had no thought of ever seeing me again; he had only been amusing himself. What happened at Nunswell was a mere chance--a mere impulse. He was in a mortified, wounded state from Roma's rejection, and my evident devotion offered itself opportunely. I dare say he was _sorry_ for me, too--pleasant to think of, is it not? I see it all as plainly as possible; the only thing that puzzles me now is, how I could ever have been so infatuated as to see it differently."

"And did Mrs Eyrecourt really tell you all this?" inquired Sydney, for Eugenia had made no secret of the sources of her information. "When you taxed her, I mean, with the inferences to be drawn from the little girl's chatter? I can hardly understand how your sister-in-law _dared_ to say such things. Surely she might have tried to soften the facts!" She spoke indignantly, nevertheless she was conscious of a strong suspicion that her sister's excited imagination had had to do with the filling in of some of the details which gave colour and consistency to the whole story.

"I _made_ her tell me all," answered Eugenia. "Not that she wanted to soften it, but at first she was a little frightened. Afterwards I do believe she enjoyed telling me, though all the while affecting to do it so reluctantly. She cannot understand where I learnt what I already knew, and she shall never know. Oh, Sydney, she said hateful things! When I asked her how she could have interfered between her brother and Roma, when I told her that by so doing she had ruined _three_ lives, she said something about my romantic ideas, and hinted that if Beauchamp had known that he was to succeed his cousin, when he met me again at Nunswell, he would never have thrown himself away as he did. But I don't think I minded that; it seemed too coarse to touch me. Then, at the end, she seemed to get frightened again, and tried to soothe me down. She reminded me that no wife should expect her husband's full confidence as to the past, and she said that no girl could be so foolish as to imagine that a man like Beauchamp could have lived twenty-eight years in the world without love affairs of some kind. If it had not been Roma, it would have been some one else; I should think myself fortunate I had nothing worse to complain of. I dare say there is a sort of coarse truth in it--the world is a dreadful, miserable place; and, oh, Sydney, I wish I were dead!"

There was nothing for it but to soothe and caress her into temporary calm. She was too utterly worn out to be capable of being reasoned with; it would have been cruel to attempt it. Much as Sydney felt for her--intensely as she pitied her--she could not for a moment deceive herself into thinking that Eugenia had acted well or wisely. It had been a wild impulse that had urged her to this foolish, undignified step--so her best friends would say, and the world would say yet harsher things--yet, oh, poor Eugenia, how well Sydney understood the tumult of her feelings--the peculiar agony to her nature and disposition of the wounds she had received, the bitter anguish of the disappointments she had had to endure! It was with a very sore heart Sydney left her for the night; it was with no small uneasiness she reflected on what she had to tell her husband, and tried to imagine what course he would determine on pursuing. For in certain directions Frank could see but one road; rough and thorny though it might be, he sometimes showed but scant tenderness for those who, he decided, must walk therein. He was a good man--a good and true-hearted man, but of some kinds of trial and temptation he knew as little as his own baby son.

Sydney's misgivings proved to be not unfounded. Eugenia slept till late the next morning, for the first part of the night sleep had deserted her altogether. It was so late when she woke that Frank had already left the house, Sydney told her.

"He has gone again to that sick man, and there is a meeting of some kind at one, so he will not be back till the afternoon; but he hopes to see you then," she added.

"And was that the only message he left for me? Could you explain things to him at all--do you think he enters into my feelings?" asked Eugenia, anxiously.

"He was exceedingly surprised, and of course distressed," answered Sydney, a little evasively. "We talked a great deal. Frank is very anxious about you, and very desirous of advising you for the best. Indeed he is, Eugenia; you must try to believe this, whether you agree with him or not."

"That means, he blames me, and me alone, for my misery," exclaimed Eugenia, impetuously. "You need not try to soften it to me, Sydney. Tell me all he said, plainly; though, truly, I think he might have had the manliness to say it to me himself, and not give you the pain of doing so."